A Star is Born

Author's Note: This is a short contribution to the 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover event. Thank you, Nora and Bebop for the invite.

My thanks to the mythical swimsuit models of Sports Illustrated and to the many shapes, sizes, and colors of TaTa University, their input made this a much better story. Also a special nod to those that edited my story as well.

Note: There's no sex in this story, just a cheating wife. It certainly doesn't break any new ground but hopefully, you'll enjoy!

*****

"Lamar?" A small voice called out over the phone.

It sounded so timid and fragile that he almost didn't recognize her. It was obvious she'd been crying. He immediately fought back his rage. He desperately wanted to tear her world apart like she'd done his... but it would've been like clubbing a baby seal. With gritted teeth, he replied.

"Yeah, I'm here."

"I'm... I'm sorry."

"I am, too, Tess. But that doesn't change anything."

"I know but I... I just needed you to know."

The awkward silence that followed was unnerving. Finally, a question was asked that opened Pandora's Box.

"Why?" she asked softly. "Why embarrass me like that? Do you hate me that much now?"

"Damn, I could ask you the same question, couldn't I?" he growled. "Why? Why in the hell would you throw away the past five years? Was he that incredible that it was worth destroying our marriage?"

There was no reply but her soft sobs.

"As for what I did? Other than exposing you to your families, I didn't do anything. I didn't have anything to do with what was posted on the internet."

He knew that wasn't exactly true. Still, plausible deniability was a wonderful thing.

"As for your family and his ..." he sneered, fighting back his anger. "Without any proof, your family would deny your shit stinks, let alone you'd ever act like a cheating slut. Besides, both of you wanted to be famous, I just helped that along."

Tessa Albright-Hopkins was a tall, striking blonde who was a professional model and actress. Although she was well known locally and even regionally, she still had national if not international dreams. She'd done many Dallas/ Ft. Worth area commercials and statewide ones, as well. She'd performed in an Off-Broadway production that toured across the South and even had landed several small speaking roles in movies that had been shot on location there in Texas.

She was now on her way to being a star, albeit an international porn star.

Her extended weekend in San Antonio last month while shooting a series of commercials had provided several videos that had ended up on two Russian porn sites.

Her costar was an ex-NFL jock-turned-actor named Brad. He'd played with the Dallas Cowboys for several years, albeit on special teams. Still, with his good looks, athletic body, and abundant arrogance, he was the perfect leading man.

Besides being a player, both actually and figuratively, Brad had a strong taste for the added thrill of public sex. Lamar supposed he should feel lucky, since that little kink had allowed his wife's indiscretions to be revealed, but Lamar wasn't feeling all that lucky at the moment.

He'd found out about the website two weeks previously. He'd suspected something had happened the last time Tessa had worked with Brad, about ten months prior, but didn't have any proof to back up his fears. Now, he did. His heart broke when he first saw the evidence and watched the woman he adored give herself to another. Slowly, the excruciating pain began to morph into wave of a sickening anger. The mixture threatened to overwhelm him, but he was able to contain it, barely, enough to do the things he needed.

Once he saw the videos, he'd hired a private investigator to verify their authenticity and gather any additional information. It had only taken them about a week to confirm everything, plus interview some of those that had been onsite during the shoot. He'd then contacted a divorce lawyer.

Lamar Hopkins wasn't proud of how he'd confronted his cheating wife but he wasn't ashamed, either. He'd taken the information the investigator had given him, along with multiple edited scenesfrom the videos, and burned them onto three DVDs. The first he'd put away for safekeeping. The second was sent to Brad's wife and her family. The last DVD he'd used for a surprise showing for Tessa's family during their weekend gathering. While the family watched in horror, he'd left out the back, although not before leaving his wedding ring, divorce papers, and a short note telling Tessa not to come home.

'A star was born,' he thought before chastising himself for his gallows humor.

"Lamar?"

"What?"

"Can we talk?"

"I thought we were."

"I mean about... about us?"

"There is no us, Tessa."

"Please, Baby, don't say that!"

"Please, Baby," he seethed, "you can't be so stupid to think that having sex with that asshole wouldn't destroy our marriage!"

"It was a mistake! I wasn't thinking. I got so wrapped up in everything that I lost sight of us. I'm so very sorry, Baby."

"Me too. However, I'm not sure which mistake you're referring to," he replied, his pain and anger palpable even across the phone. "From what was on the videos, you had sex with him on the River Walk in several isolated spots. You also had sex with him at SeaWorld. The one with you being humped with an orca in the distant background was a very nice touch, by the way. Oh, and him banging you against one of the walls of the Alamo at night will forever be burned into my memory. Remember the Alamo! I certainly will now!"

He could hear her begin to weep.

"So which mistake are we talking about, actually?" He continued his attack. "Was it settling for the San Antonio trifecta of public sex? Was it missing out on doing it on the 50 yard-line at the Alamodome, or maybe not having sex on one of the rides at Six Flags Fiesta Texas Amusement Park?

"Or maybe, just maybe, it was that mistake you denied having made with the same son-of-a-bitch last winter when you did that commercial over at the Gaylord in Dallas?"

"No! I told you nothing happened that..."

"Liar!" he barked out before regaining control. "I don't believe you and I doubt I ever will again."

Tessa's muffled cry was cut short as she disconnected.

"That's what I thought," Lamar growled at his cell phone.

He sat heavily in his recliner. He was exhausted, both mentally and emotionally. He could feel the blood pulsating in his ears and he focused on the rhythm.

He'd seen the signs. He'd known this was coming, but he hadn't been able to figure out a way to stop it. That was what was most frustrating.

He was good at identifying problems, finding solutions or workarounds, and implementing them, though never with something this personal, something this close to home. It was certainly within his skill set, since he was a Project Manager. He led a team of developers within the IT Department at American Airlines.

Silently he reflected on how his marriage and his life had fallen apart. The first domino to fall, at least to his awareness, was ten months ago. Tessa had spent several days at the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine, a northern suburb in the DFW Metro. She'd been shooting some commercials for a regional jewelry chain. It was an ideal setting with its smaller indoor versions of the Riverwalk and Alamo.

It had supposedly been the first time she'd worked with Brad, and he'd noticed things had been off as soon as she'd returned. Several days later, he'd heard hints that something had happened during the shoot.

He'd confronted Tessa, but she'd denied everything. She'd been so devastated when he'd accused her, that his heart had almost broken as well.

Without proof, he'd been left to wallow in his suspicion and uncertainty. He realized his lingering doubts were poisoning their marriage, but he wasn't sure how to resolve it. Over the next few months, things slowly had returned to a fragile normal.

When she announced the San Antonio shoot with Brad, all the doubts and fears resurfaced. She'd tried to reassure him that it was nothing but a professional shoot. When his concerns didn't lessen, she'd turned defensive.

Lamar had tried to hide his personal struggles, but his anger and frustration seeped through. Tessa recognized it but didn't know how to alleviate it. She ended up ignoring it; hoping to avoid another confrontation.

His team at work saw through it immediately as well. Surmising the problem might be marital, it had been the two female team members, Kelsey and Kaama, who had approached him.

Kelsey, the self-appointed sparkplug of the team, stood a couple of inches shy of five feet and weighed maybe 90 pounds soaking wet. She had bright red frizzy hair that surrounded her cute pixie-like face and piercing green eyes. Even though she looked like a teenager, she was in her late twenties.

Kaama, on the other hand, was a tall Indian woman in her early thirties. She always had an air of grace surrounding her, no doubt from her upper-caste upbringing. Her striking beauty was marred only by a severe overbite. Still, her dark hair and eyes and her very womanly physique made her quite attractive: so attractive that the remaining two members of the team, Raj and Marty, followed her around like lovesick puppies.

Slowly, both women had worn him down and he eventually shared his concerns. Within hours, his team had assembled around him. They were close as a team, working long hours and under impossible deadlines will accomplish that.

As they stood surrounding him, Lamar had fought his gallows humor and the desire to say, "Oh, look! We're in the land of the little people" since everyone in his team except for Kaama was height disadvantaged.

Raj was a small wiry Indian man in his early twenties. Even though everyone in Lamar's team was very intelligent, Raj was scary smart.

Marty was also short, maybe a few inches above five feet, and had to weigh at least 200 pounds. With his round face, curly black hair and wire-rimmed glasses, it was easy to see some resemblance to a Hobbit. The fact he'd dressed up like Frodo Baggins a couple of years earlier for a Halloween party had sealed his nickname.

Standing at a shade over six feet, Lamar towered over them. At that moment, however, he felt very, very small.

Their reactions were fairly predictable. Kelsey thought he should go to San Antonio and confront Tessa. Kaama suggested counseling. Raj offered to hack into her personal accounts and Marty wanted to try and sell her to a Mexican whorehouse.

Although they meant well, Lamar was hesitant to take relationship advice from them. Kaama had the most relationship experience of the group, by far, but she changed boyfriends as often as she changed outfits.

Kelsey had an on-again-off-again boyfriend from the time Lamar had met her three years before. He'd lost count of how many times they'd broken up over that time. Lamar wasn't sure but thought they were broken up at the time.

Raj was a genuinely nice guy, but his computer brilliance had come at the price of his social skills, which were very lacking. Besides, he was so infatuated with Kaama that whatever she suggested he'd dutifully second.

Marty was another thing, altogether. Normally friendly and pleasant, he had a sinister side to him, as well. Lamar believed he still lived in his parent's basement. He was also pretty sure whatever social graces Marty had were gleaned from social media.

Lamar wasn't sure what to do. In the end, he decided against hiring an expensive investigator. The cost and exposure, if there was nothing happening, was too great a risk, even though Marty said he knew someone who could do it cheaply. Tessa had acted so hurt and angry the last time that Lamar felt he would seriously damage their marriage if he didn't give her the benefit of the doubt.

With the situation unresolved, Lamar went back to the uneasy feeling his marriage was in trouble. His concerns after her trip were intensified by her reactions when she came home. It had been like their honeymoon as Tessa had tried to kill him with sex that first week. When Lamar had questioned her about it, she had exploded. That next week was the polar opposite... ice-cold.

It was at the end of the second week after Tessa's San Antonio trip that Kelsey and Marty approached him. Actually, Kelsey was dragging an obviously reluctant Marty.

"Tell him Frodo!" Kelsey demanded.

Marty looked very uncomfortable as he shifted from one foot to the other.

"Dammit, Marty! Tell him!" she spit. Lamar was half expecting her to stomp her foot as well.

"Ah... well... dammit, Lamar. I'm sorry but I sort of ran across this website and well... it had some videos on it..."

Kelsey snorted and Marty glared at her.

"You want to tell him?" he snapped.

"Tell me what?" Lamar interjected.

"All right," Marty huffed. "Last night I kind of stumbled on a few sex videos... "

"Marty, I really don't want to hear about your latest porn viewing escapades... "

"Well, you might this time. The blonde in those videos looked a whole lot like your wife."

"Tessa?" he replied, the shock and doubt obvious on his face.

Marty nodded.

"I don't... I don't believe you."

"Its true, Lamar!" Kelsey interjected. "I saw them, and it's your wife and that Brad guy having sex in public places."

"You saw it?" Lamar grimaced as his world began to slowly implode. "You were watching porn videos?"

Marty couldn't hold back a snort as Kelsey's face turned as red as her hair.

"That's not what I meant. Not that I haven't... " she stammered. "Never mind that! Yes, I saw the videos, we all did, and they really are of Tessa."

"Everyone's seen them?" Lamar growled.

"Well, yeah," Marty replied, "they were on the internet."

"And you're sure it was Tessa?"

"I'm sorry, Lamar," Kelsey said gently trying to defuse the situation, "but I'm sure."

Lamar sighed. "I guess I'll need those websites. I'll take a look tonight."

"Sorry, Lamar," Marty said softly and gave him the information.

Lamar almost didn't look at the sites that night. If they showed what he'd feared, then his four-year marriage would likely be over. When they'd first started dating, Tessa had sworn she'd been through with the wild and sometimes decadent aspects of the modeling and acting worlds. Evidence that she'd returned to that lifestyle couldn't be ignored. It would have to be acted upon.

Eventually, he did watch them. Tessa was gone for a few days at an event, which allowed him to watch in peace. What he saw shattered any peace he thought he might have.

It was the longest night of his life as he fought his demons. From the pain of being betrayed to the frustrated rage of watching his dreams burn in front of him, Lamar spent the night in bipolar hell.

The next day, he began to pick up the emotional pieces. Piece by piece he slowly regained the self-control he needed. He began the process as he contacted an investigator to verify and find any other proof. Other than that, he decided that he would wait for that report before he went any farther in ending his marriage. If it got to that point, he wasn't sure exactly what he would do.

His team had other ideas.

"Leave the bitch!" Kelsey snorted.

"I'll need to at least confront her, Kelsey," Lamar stated.

"Why? What could she possibly say?" she retorted.

"Maybe she was drugged!" Kaama interjected.

"Oh please!" Marty laughed. "You saw the videos. She'd have to have been drugged for days. You can't tell me that someone on the set wouldn't have noticed!"

"Maybe she was being blackmailed," Raj offered.

"Yeah, and maybe she was hit by the Martian Slut Ray!" Marty snorted.

"Martian Slut Ray?" both Kaama and Raj asked simultaneously.

"Never mind," Marty laughed.

"Still, you're going to leave her, right Lamar?" Kelsey added.

"I suspect that's what will happen," Lamar said grimly. "I have an investigator gathering up the facts. I suspect my marriage is through but I'll still need to confront her. If I do leave her, I'm not sure exactly how to go about doing it."

"Just leave," Raj said matter-of-factly.

"There must be," Marty added, smiling, "I dunno... fifty ways to leave your lover?"

The entire group was filled with muffled chuckles or groans.

"Just slip out the back, Jack," Raj stated.

"Make a new plan, Stan," Marty quickly added.

"All right," Lamar snorted, "you've made your point."

Kelsey grinned sweetly, a sign she was about to say something definitely not sweet. "Just throw her under the bus, Gus."

"I don't think," Lamar stated, failing to hide a small smile, "that was part of the lyrics."

"Maybe not," Kelsey replied with an innocent smile that quickly turned into an evil grin, "but it should've been!"

"Just put her in the trunk, Monk," Marty added.

Kaama was slowly shaking her head but couldn't help but join in. "Just run for cover, lover."

"Burn her at the stake, Jake!" Kelsey squealed with glee.

"Just sleep with her sister, Mister," Marty sang.

"Dear God, no!" Lamar barked out looking like he'd swallowed something rotten. "She has two sisters; both are attractive but no way!

"One is so stuck-up she's definitely frigid and the other is a Texas version of the Church Lady! Both are truly puckered! Not only is it a no, but a hell no!"

"Then do her mother, Brother!" Raj said smiling like he'd solved some difficult programming code.

"Eww!" both Kaama and Kelsey squealed.

"Then do her dad, Chad!" Marty almost shouted.

"Enough!" Lamar said fighting back a laugh. "Before someone overhears us and we all get sent to HR to be lectured about political correctness!"

With a few giggles and chuckles, the group settled into an awkward silence.

"Thank you," Lamar said quietly. "Your support right now means more than you know. However, I'll have to figure out what to do and how to do it. I'm the one who'll have to live with the consequences."

*****

Tessa took a deep breath as she adjusted her dress, opened the car door of her BMW, and crawled behind the wheel. As she left her parent's Highland Park mansion, she checked her GPS. What would normally be a leisurely twenty-minute North Dallas drive was now being estimated at just under an hour. Friday night rush hour had both I-35 and the George Bush Turnpike gridlocked.

A quick glance at her watch reminded her how late she was. She was currently thirty minutes late, and now, she'd arrive just when he was going to leave.

'Dammit, this isn't happening,' she thought to herself, 'not now, please not tonight!'

She checked her GPS again for the quickest route. Her destination was simple, her home in Plano. Or at least what had been her home until a week ago. Now, everything was in chaos. She fought back a sob.

For the hundredth time, she replayed last Friday evening. That was when her world fell apart, and it started with that horrible video.

Actually, she knew that wasn't true. Her world had started to unravel almost ten months earlier when she'd allowed Brad to cross boundaries that should've been reserved only for her husband.

She hadn't slept with Brad, but their make out and groping session in the Gaylord's Riverwalk ended up being a precursor to what had actually happened in San Antonio. She felt her cheeks flush with both shame and a remembered desire.

She'd liked to have said she didn't know why it happened but she knew all too well why she'd fallen. There were reasons surrounding her incredibly stupid choices, but they all sounded like excuses. The truth wasn't flattering and made her sound like what she knew she was... selfish.

Still, her husband's way of exposing her had been cruel. He'd displayed all her extramarital atrocities for everyone to see!

When the DVD had first started playing, it looked like one of the movies they'd all agreed to see. Thankfully, none of the children were there. They were being entertained in another room by their own movie.